


A Muse Meant

by anonymouST (anonymo_su)



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Ambiguous Relationship, Babel Trek Open Project (Star Trek), Constructed Language, Episode: s04e21 The Muse, Fake Marriage, Fluid Pronoun Usage, Fun with Gender, Gen, Gender Roles, Heteronormativity, Languages and Linguistics, Odo is bad at expressing Feelings, Odo's gender is 'I do what I want' and also 'petty bastard', Other, Patriarchy, Petty Fun, Sad with a Happy Ending, Shapeshifting, Unhappy Past Relationship, plot twist: this is basically what Lwaxana's gender is too, real sad Lwaxana hours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:13:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22613896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymo_su/pseuds/anonymouST
Summary: Based on DS9's 'The Muse', where Odo and Lwaxana get married to free her from her controlling Tavnian husband.Tavnians had a very different way of expressing 'love' to the languages Odo knew. His native Bajoran had several words, some ambiguous (one form could refer to a friend just as easily as it could to a sexual partner), others with unmistakeable clarity (the word used to express parental affection for small children, for example, or the form used in love poetry). The Cardassian terms were neatly partitioned, with a simplicity he'd appreciated conducting questionings on Terok Nor: love for Cardassia, love for peers, love for spouse, love for family (younger and older). Federation Standard, for a language that prided itself on clarity, had one maddeningly ambiguous word that could mean damn near anything it wanted to.Tavnians also only had one word, but it was far more specific. It was only to be used in the 'strong masculine' register, and could refer to any prized possession. That possession sometimes happened to be the speaker's wife.
Relationships: Odo & Lwaxana Troi, Odo/Lwaxana Troi
Comments: 13
Kudos: 53
Collections: The Babel Trek Open Project





	A Muse Meant

**Author's Note:**

> Category "other", because the gendered ones don't really work for goo.
> 
> Ambiguous Relationship tag: could be shippy, could be platonic, read it how you want, works either way. I personally wrote it as platonic love... where they also happen to be getting married for unrelated reasons.

A blank PADD had never been this intimidating. Odo's duties frequently included writing reports, and not once had the writing ever been a challenge for him. But this was turning out to be an entirely different endeavour. The language barrier certainly wasn't the only issue, but it was the most immediate one.

One he'd much rather avoid, if at all possible. "Can't we let the Universal Translator do the work for us? I could make the speech in Bajoran or Federation Standard, even Cardassian if I really wanted to, and he'd hear it in Tavnian no matter what. Surely that's what matters."

Lwaxana's face looked as if it hadn't untensed itself in years. Her gentle motion back and forth in the newly-replicated rocking chair didn't seem to be calming her very much. "Oh, Odo, I assure you, he'll be looking for any reason to discredit us. If we don't conduct it in the Tavnian language, our marriage is null and void."

"Will he even be able to tell?"

Lwaxana was absolutely firm on this. "He'll want to make sure. He'll turn his translator off _just_ to check, I'm certain of it."

Odo didn't press it any further. Better to prepare than to be caught off-guard. And regardless, Lwaxana knew Jeyal. She was the one married to him – though hopefully not for much longer. If she was certain on this, then Odo would trust her.

He'd made a rash decision, concocting this marriage plan without consulting Lwaxana first. He thought he'd been thorough reading up on Tavnian marriage law. In fact, he _had_ been thorough – enough to be certain that this would work to free her from Jeyal. But then he'd told her the plan, and it had only seemed to add to her worries. She'd easily accepted the idea of it – of marrying Odo to annul her marriage to Jeyal – but once it became clear Jeyal would be witnessing it, there seemed to be a thousand little details that had to be accounted for, and her words were like an avalanche as she'd nervously rattled them off. Any one of these things could go wrong, she'd told him. But it could work, and it would have to. There was one unspoken agreement: leaving Lwaxana and her unborn baby to Jeyal simply wasn't an option.

For the sake of giving Lwaxana's frayed nerves a chance to re-knit themselves, Odo had taken it upon himself to deal with most of the issues. Naturally, Tavnian tradition didn't account for shapeshifters, so an order had been put in with Garak for wedding clothes fitting the exact specifications. There were strict instructions for how their garments must be made; fortunately, the simple tailor had considered himself up to the task. The engagement had been announced via "bellringing and loud proclamation in the street", for which he'd used the Promenade. It had drawn far more attention than he was used to. Normally Quark would never let him live this down, but he seemed to have sensed something serious in Odo and kept quiet. Morn, on the other hand...

One small mercy of Tavnian marriage custom was that it demanded very little exertion on the bride's part; this was one rare time when having to be demure and unseen worked just fine for Lwaxana. Her role so far had been to stay entirely within Odo's quarters, ensuring no one else saw her face before the ceremony. It wasn't too bad, she'd assured him. Being on the run (while pregnant, for that matter) had exhausted all the energy she had; staying out of DS9 life meant she didn't have to deal with the psychic onslaught of the station's thoughts and feelings at all times. Odo's mind had always been unreadable, and she appreciated it.

Still, she was lonely. Odo made sure to spend as much time with her as he could spare. Sometimes, in the most joyful moments, he could make her worry melt away.

He needed her for something serious now, though. That meant dealing with her worry very directly, as much as it might pain them both. The fact of the matter was: Lwaxana could speak Tavnian. Odo couldn't. And with the station's databanks providing next to no information on this obscure language, that left it to Lwaxana to guide Odo in saying what he needed to say.

"How should it begin?" he prompted her. The beginning would be less difficult than the rest; certain aspects of the vows were mostly constant, and would not vary too much from ceremony to ceremony. The need for his personal touch wouldn't come until later.

"Hmmm..." Lwaxana leant back in the rocking chair, switched off her translator and began, speaking slowly in Tavnian at a pace with which his typing could keep up. He noted it down phonetically in a way that he could recall later.

Then, mid-sentence: "No, no, no, forget all that," Lwaxana said in Bajoran; she spoke it fluently, though with a distinct accent that had never made it through the translator. "I'm sorry, I slipped into the wrong gender register. I don't often speak in the strong masculine."

"Strong masculine?"

"Tavnian has standard masculine, which is what men will mostly use from day to day. There's standard feminine for women, and then there's strong masculine for... well. There are some phrases which aren't to be used in any register _but_ the strong masculine, although that certainly never stopped me! But I won't bore you with the various uses. The marriage ceremony is one of them."

"Am I correct in assuming they have no 'strong feminine' register?"

"Their 'strong feminine' is simply not speaking at all." She scoffed, and set herself rocking again. "Which is why the ceremony barely gives me a chance to speak."

"Hmph. Meanwhile the ceremony gives me no choice but to speak in the 'strong masculine'." He rolled his eyes. "Me, 'strong masculine'. I don't even _have_ a gender."

"You don't?" Lwaxana sounded honestly curious.

"No, it's meaningless to my species. I mostly take this form because, well, I always have. Humanoids happen to see it as male, so I 'am' male in their eyes. Of course, I don't have to be. For example..."

He briefly shifted his face into a smoother imitation of hers, then topped it with a piled-up curly wig streaked through with brown and beige. It lasted only a few seconds before he shifted it back to his usual, and her laughter brought him a smile.

"Ha! Oh, Odo, it's like looking into a mirror. A {carnival mirror}, half-melted." She'd slipped into Federation Standard for one phrase alone, one not easily expressed in Bajoran. "Oh, but the Tavnians would _despise_ that. Especially since a name like yours is as 'strong masculine' as can be."

"Oh?"

"Yes, exactly! Nouns in strong masculine will usually end with an 'o'. Names don't, though. Oh, but women's names are another story! You see, in the _feminine_ register, nouns will end with a 'u', and that _certainly_ goes for women's names as well! You should have _seen_ Jeval's family – his mother Imulu, his older sisters Hiru and Vuru, his younger sister Ceru... you'd _really_ get tired of hearing that sound...!"

"So, how does a name like 'Lwaxana' fit into all this?" Odo asked.

"Oh, _quite dreadfully_ , I assure you! You see, 'a' is the ending used by nouns in the standard masculine, and... oh, Odo, you would be _astounded_ by how fussy those people are! As we were writing out our marriage certificate, can you believe it, he told me my name felt like an _insult!_ He wanted me to _change_ it... to _'Lwuxunu'!_ " She broke into laughter on saying it. "Lwuxunu! How ri _di_ culous does that sound?! And the man was _deathly_ serious!"

Her chair was shaking with the force of her laughter, and Odo was almost doubling over himself. "He felt insulted... by your _name?_ "

"Oh, I should travel back in time and admonish my parents for giving me such a scandalous name! I couldn't possibly risk offending his—" gruff voice — " _strong masculine_ sensibilities!"

"Don't worry about that," Odo guffawed. "You'll always be—" even gruffer voice, faux-pompous head wiggle to hit it home— " _'Lwoxono'_ to me!" And _that_ set them off all over again.

Slowly, she started remembering how to breathe. Lwaxana gently cupped her pregnant belly – the baby in there had surely been given one hell of a rollercoaster ride. She set herself back to a gentle rocking motion.

"Oh, but he had his way in the end," she continued, still out of breath. "Once he'd made his vow, that was it. Complete control, by Tavnian law."

"You mean... he actually changed your name?"

"He did. Not to 'Lwuxunu', because that was ridiculous, and I told him so! So he gave me a choice of three different names, and I suppose he thought he was being _so permissive_ by giving me a _choice,_ but of course _not_ changing my name was simply out of the question! So I chose 'Luxu', and there it was. In quartzite-onyx ink, on our marriage certificate." She sighed. "Well, I thought I could live with it! I thought I could. A new name's not much of a price to pay for marrying the man you love, isn't it? And yet... that was only the beginning."

The exhaustion throughout her body made that clear.

Odo didn't know what to say. He didn't want to make her continue, not in this state. She needed rest, and yet they only had one day left, and this needed doing at some point. But he'd feel guilty asking this of her – asking anything of her. This woman deserved a _lifetime_ of rest, not him putting her back to work.

"Odo."

"Lwaxana?"

"Let's continue, shall we?"

"Yes." He appreciated it.

"Oh, I can't remember where I left off. Let's start again from the top. Now..."

Odo cleared his PADD and returned to his role as humble student.

Back into Tavnian: "Tavnikabelo inveyal, Odo isjen kittes telal, Odovo kotho ikol, Odovo ismethalvoso idajal, it Odovo oyojo gebes mino-ikol jeles isOdovoso." Lwaxana paused to breathe, then returned to their comfortable Bajoran. "Yes, I think that was all correct."

"What does it mean?"

"Ahh... 'in keeping with Tavnian tradition, I stand before you, here in my home, among my worldly possessions, and declare my wish to add this woman to that which is mine'." She spoke each word with irritation. Understandably.

"Hmph. Feels like I'm announcing the presence of a new sculpture in my quarters. You don't need to be a Betazoid to read the... subtext..." Odo realised that common phrase might come off a little differently when said to an actual Betazoid.

Lwaxana was quiet.

"Lwaxana?"

"Oh, I read the subtext, and I ignored it." She pursed her lips. "I told myself he was different, that it was just tradition, that he didn't really _mean_ any of the words that he was saying."

"I won't. Lwaxana, I promise you... _I_ won't."

She gave him the saddest smile he'd ever seen; it almost broke his heart. "Oh, Odo. You have no idea how thankful I am. I showed up on your doorstep, asking for protection, and you've done more for this silly old woman than I could ever have hoped for."

"It's just what I do. I don't know what I'd do otherwise. It's nothing for me, really."

"And it's everything to me."

Odo nodded at that in silence.

She was the one who broke that silence: "I need your speech now, Odo."

"Of course. Of course." Now came the hardest part. He looked up to the ceiling, as if it might reveal the perfect things to say if only he stared at it hard enough. The ceiling was stubbornly reticent. 

Fine.

"I love Lwaxana. She is kind, she is beautiful, and I want to spend the rest of my life with her." With her florid way of talking, surely she could spin that into art. 

"Odo."

He regretted it instantly. Felt the guilt of not trying hard enough.

"Odo, I know this isn't easy for you. But you'll need to be honest to convince him. If not honest, then..." She smiled with sad eyes. "Then I can invent a nice romantic lie, and I can teach you how to believe it."

"No." Eyes back to the ceiling, his old friend. The last thing he wanted was to fail her here. He would find the honesty in himself, and he would bring it out for her sake.

He closed his eyes, lowered his head, shook it softly. He opened his eyes. He spoke.

* * *

Tavnians had a very different way of expressing 'love' to the languages Odo knew. His native Bajoran had several words, some ambiguous (one form could refer to a friend just as easily as it could to a sexual partner), others with unmistakeable clarity (the word used to express parental affection for small children, for example, or the form used in love poetry). The Cardassian terms were neatly partitioned, with a simplicity he'd appreciated conducting questionings on Terok Nor: love for Cardassia, love for peers, love for spouse, love for family (younger and older). Federation Standard, for a language that prided itself on clarity, had one maddeningly ambiguous word that could mean damn near anything it wanted to.

Tavnians also only had one word, but it was far more specific. It was only to be used in the 'strong masculine' register, and could refer to any prized possession. That possession sometimes happened to be the speaker's wife.

Odo had tried to use it, at first, but as soon as Lwaxana had explained the word he'd never been able to say it with feeling. They'd had to rewrite a good portion of Odo's speech, to express his love without acquiescing to Tavnian 'love'.

It hadn't been easy. Tavnian, especially in the 'strong masculine', was not a language suited to expressing feelings. But they'd figured something out, and Odo had learnt it by heart, and now the ceremony was here, it was time to recite it.

He struggled to keep his form composed. He had to do this right, for Lwaxana's sake.

The robes were draped uncomfortably around him, feeling like constraints on his form. He couldn't look to Lwaxana for support – she stood on the podium behind him, veiled and robed, holding her orb of light. His eyes flickered to different corners of the room, trying to avoid the people in front of him, instead – too many of them. People he _knew._

He knew the speech, but it was different with an audience. The entire senior staff (and Quark) had shown up to the wedding, and would hear everything – _everything_ he had to say – all conveniently translated into the language they knew best.

And then there was Jeyal, who had conspicuously turned off his translator seconds after Odo had, and whose eyes were fixed firmly on him, the 'competitor'.

That thought compelled him to start the speech. The sooner Lwaxana was out of his legal 'ownership', the better.

"Tavnikabelo inveyal, Odo isjen kittes telal, Odovo kotho ikol, Odovo ismethalvoso idajal, it Odovo oyojo gebes mino-ikol jeles isOdovoso."

The standard opening declaration. He had kept his tone steady, ensured he enunciated each syllable. Not so difficult here: this had been the easy part.

He'd considered simply asking for the phonetic translation, to avoid the emotional burden of what the words meant. But Lwaxana had been right: he _needed_ to be honest, and that meant knowing exactly what he was saying. He had to use the right emphasis, the right tone of voice for the words he was saying...

He had to _mean_ it.

"Odo mino-ikol jattek-ok inal, Odovo kolo tek Odovo-irl." {When I did not know this woman, my life was mine alone.}

"Odovo kolo tek ulum, Odo isjar laektek-ok, it Odo kibek Odovo oyojo tek eyam." {My life was silent, I did not talk with other people, and I thought that was my true desire.}

"Tek-ok, it tes-ok." {It was not, and it is not.}

"Odo dantek Odo tek okin, Odo dantek isjar korrek ikok, it Odo kibek: Odo tek umim jel, Odovo imso tek ikol jel." {I knew I was different, I knew others hated that, and I thought: if I was alone, then this was what was good for me.}

"Odo mino-ikol jattek inaval." {Then I met this woman.}

"Mino Odo tisek. Odo tek okin koral, it mino Odo massek, it minovu oyojo tek Odo koral-tise." {She saw me. I was so different, and she liked me, and her desire was to see me again.}

He saw Jeyal shift his weight very slightly – the kind of shift that no one but Odo would notice. They'd taken a risk putting that in the speech. It was technically gramatically incorrect to talk about a woman's wishes, but Odo couldn't imagine talking about Lwaxana any other way.

As long as he didn't speak up...

"Odo dantes: mino Odo masses jer, isjar Odo masses koral jer..." {I know: if she can like me, then others can like me too...}

"... it Odo tes-yik-ok umim." {... and I don't have to be alone.}

"Odo mino-ikol jattes inal, Odo tes-ok umim, Odovo kolo tes-ok ulum, it Odo dantes imso tes ikol." {Now that I know this woman, I am not alone, my life is not silent, and I know this is good for me.}

He was shaking. He found himself having to consciously hold his form – in that respect, the constraint of physical clothing was almost helpful. What wasn't helpful was the dozen eyes focused directly on him. Normally he'd be able to tell their feelings so easily from those faces, but at the moment he didn't even want to think about what all those different looks meant.

He turned around – and now he was able to look at her, with her dark eyes open wide and her lips slightly parted beneath her veil.

"Luxu Odo jineles-ik. Odo Luxuvu livu naries-ik." {Marry me, Lwaxana. Let me into your light.}

He waited a little too long, with no response. Quietly: "Lwaxana?"

"Oh!" She smiled, a little embarrassed. "Odoikulu, minu Odo u'teles ilmenul imelmenul." {I give myself to you forever and always.}

And he took her hand and joined her on the podium, the two of them raising their joined hands, and while he had to face the others again now... only two lines left, and these were easy ones.

What wouldn't be easy was what came between them.

"Odo gebes isjan teres, Odovo mino tes. Isjar Odovo doko kilojes jel, jar kes ikol inival jel." {I say for all to hear that this woman is mine. If anyone challenges my claim to her, let them do so now.}

Odo had forced his nervous eyes to settle on Jeyal's face, and was grateful for it; even before he'd finished speaking, Odo could tell he wasn't going to speak up. His head had bowed in a way imperceptible to anyone but Odo, who'd spent his whole life reading these signs. Only he saw the tacit admission of defeat.

He gave a pause, just in case. He considered briefly what 'just in case' there might be, but not even Quark was likely to screw this up for him. And for Lwaxana.

He felt her hand squeeze his for a split second. She was free.

"Odovo isjen komino-kete yageres." {I present to you my beloved wife.}

'Kete'. There was their sorry excuse of a word for 'love'. It was meaningless here – no one possessed her now.

Lwaxana grinned as they stepped down from the podium together. She hugged Odo first, catching him off guard; Dax made sure to be next, sort of nuzzling the side of his head; Dr. Bashir's long arms seemed to fling themselves around him; O'Brien ruffled his hair; Kira somehow barged her way past all the people around him to kiss his cheek...

Overwhelmed, it took him a while to realise that his translator was still off. He could hear most of the congratulatory wishes, Kira's in Bajoran and the rest in Federation Standard. Quark seemed to be saying something enthusiastically Ferengi, which he reminded himself (amid all the fuss being made over him) that he really needed to learn someday.

He had no idea how to handle the attention he'd just landed at the centre of, so it was almost a relief when Jeyal separated the crowd to talk to him and Lwaxana.

 _Almost_ a relief.

"Luxu, I miss you," Jeyal told Lwaxana, speaking halting Federation Standard and pointedly not looking at Odo. "My most beautiful possession, Jeyal jen ketes." {I love you.}

"Lwaxanava keamina-kete ji _nal_ , oh! Jen dantes-ik? Luxu tes-ok, _Lwaxana_ tes." {Oh, my foolish beloved darling! Don't you know? I'm not Luxu, I'm Lwaxana!}

Odo could barely understand her, but could hear enough to know that she was certainly _not_ using the feminine register, that her use of the word 'love' implied he was one of _her_ possessions... and her pinpoint patronising tone would come across in any language. Being legally free from him had clearly done a lot to restore her energy.

Jeyal definitely understood her. He was trying not to let it show, but Odo could tell he was seething.

"You let her talk _you_ that?! Odo, do not!"

Lwaxana put a hand on Odo's shoulder, giving him the most simpering fake smile she could muster. "Oh, Odo, dearest husband, keamino-kete!" She _thoroughly_ enjoyed curving her lips around that strong masculine 'o' sound. "You can't let me talk like this, can you?"

Odo was trying not to crack a smile at the newly-formed idea in his head. He wasn't sure he knew enough of the language to pull this off, but he was feeling _just_ petty enough to try it anyway.

He wouldn't normally have the confidence to do this. But something about her emboldened him.

Returning to gelatinous form, he stretched himself just thinly enough that the damned clothes (no offence, Garak) fell off around him. As he re-solidified, Odo looked at his new wife for reference, and formed identical clothes to the ones she was wearing. The face didn't change much (Odo thought mimicking Lwaxana's again might be a bit too far), but the body did change shape to fit the cut of the dress, and none of it would be complete without the curly brown-beige wig on top...

"Komino-kete!" {Beloved wife!} Lwaxana exclaimed with devious joy. 

Jeyal was already wearing the perfect face of unmasked horror, but Odo needed to do one more thing to make this _just_ right.

The newlywed brides whispered briefly to one another, making sure Odo had her phrasing correct, and then:

"Jeyalikulu, Odovu kominu-kete u'kes Lwaxanavu oyoju isijoal." {My beloved wife can do anything she wants.} Shy, demure and boundlessly permissive, Odo played the perfect Tavnian bride.

Jeyal fled Odo's quarters as quickly as he could.

As the dust settled, the various wedding guests in attendance seemed to be milling about in various states of confusion or amusement. Quark was speechless, of course.

"Well, my dearest," Lwaxana remarked. "I can't fathom what his issue might have been." An honest, sweet smile: "Oh, but you look lovely! You really do make a beautiful bride."

Compliments like that made Odo want to stay in this form forever (barring the obligatory regeneration periods). Maybe it _would_ be worthwhile to be more exploratory with different forms, to let other people perceive them in different ways. This form had already been a confidence boost.

"I think I'll stay like this for today," Odo said. That would be a good start, she thought; Lwaxana agreed with a nod.

Now the novelty had worn off, some of the others seemed to be filtering out of the room. Dax walked right by Odo, and leant down to speak to her in a low, sultry voice: "Zh'un tamor vo'shee rem gon'midor...!"

Odo wasn't sure whether or not to be glad that she didn't speak Trill.

**Author's Note:**

> Parts of Odo's wedding speech, particularly the opening and closing declarations (plus all of Lwaxana's single line there) are taken directly from The Muse. The Tavnian translations are all my own; I made up some super simplistic grammar and vocab which probably falls apart if you look too closely.
> 
> (Dax's line, on the other hand, is basically just Trill-sounding nonsense.)


End file.
